Aquaphobia
by TheNightFury
Summary: Ever since Afghanistan Tony couldn't stand water, and when SHIELD discovers this they will do anything to fix it. No mater what. Whole team is their.


**A/N**

**So this is something I've been working on for a long time and is probably the longest one shot I've written so far. I guess I have to say there could be some slight OOCness, but I honestly don't know too much about Phobias but I really wanted to try writing this so any suggestions would be highly appreciated and I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

The day started out like any other, Tony woke up early and went down to the lab to work on some project or another. He was soon joined by Bruce and the pair worked together in silence. Usually when Tony and Bruce where working in the lab, the other avengers left them alone to work, only interrupting them to tell them Clint had made them food or that Steve wanted to have 'team bonding' time. It was a particularly hot that day in August, the air conditioner blasting them with cold air to try and beat the heat when Clint came down to the lab saying,

"Guys, we're heading down to the pool wanna come?" Despite Tony's dislike of water, something had possessed Tony to build a pool in the tower. Maybe it was because Pepper wanted him to, or maybe it was to prove to himself he _wasn't_ afraid when he was secretly terrified. Regardless of why, the pool had remained unused until the Avengers came to live at the tower.

"You guys go ahead, I have a ton of stuff I have to work on," Tony calmly told Clint, not looking up from the screen he was messing with.

"Come on Tony," Clint groaned, "you're always holed up in here working on stuff, have some fun!"

"That 'stuff' I work on helps the Avengers stay alive," Tony calmly replied, desperate to _not_ join them.

"Aw come on Tony, its hot and the pools so nice…" Clint begged.

"I'm fine guys," Tony told them which was a complete lie, but he wasn't about to let them figure that out. Tony just couldn't bring himself to tell them the truth, he was afraid of what they'd think of him when they learned that Tony was terrified of water.

"Tony you've been in this lab for way to long!" Clint exclaimed.

"Clint's right Tony," Bruce added calmly, "you really need to get out." Tony was backed into a corner, and they all knew it. There was no way for Tony to decline without having to answer questions Tony didn't even want to acknowledge yet. And that's how Tony found himself in his swimsuit sitting by the pool, desperately trying to avoid having to go in.

"Come on in! The waters great!" Clint shouted, diving under the crystal clear water. Then Tony thought of something and wondered why he hadn't thought of it before.

"Shoot, I have a meeting today and I'm already late!" Tony exclaimed backing away from the pool.

"How do you know you're late if you don't have a watch?" Bruce asked, eyebrows raised.

"I'm uhh… I can look at the sun and umm… AHH!" Tony was roughly picked up and thrown over someone's shoulder.

"Since its obvious you don't want to go in the water, I'll just have to carry you in," Steve declared walking over to the pool.

"Come on Steve put me down," Tony ordered, trying to sound calm. Steve paused, thinking about it for a minute before saying,

"Nah," and jumped in. Tony frantically fought the hands that where forcing him under the water. He felt the spark of the open wires burning him, he had to get out, they were going to drown him! Tony opened his mouth trying to scream, but got a mouthful of water instead.

Steve let go of Tony after a minute of struggle, but quickly realized Tony was panicking and not swimming to the surface. Steve grabbed Tony and pulled him to the edge of the pool and pulled himself and Tony out of the water. Tony threw a wild punch at Steve causing him to loosen his grip slightly and for Tony to scramble away, eyes wide and terrified.

"Tony?" Steve asked, causing Tony to violently flinch and wrap his arms around his chest, completely covering the arc reactor. Bruce appeared next to Tony and grabbed his shoulders saying,

"Tony, listen to me. You're not in Afghanistan, you're at Stark Tower with the Avengers, you're _safe_." Tony looked around the room frantically, the glazed look in his eyes vanishing, but Tony still kept his arms protectively over the arc reactor. Tony looked down ashamed and opened his mouth to say something when someone snapped,

"What the _hell _was that Stark?"

"Director…" Steve began but Tony cut him off snapping,

"How did you get in here?" Steve could see the walls going up, the playboy billionaire playboy philanthropist façade going up again.

"Pepper let me in," Fury replied, glaring at Tony, "now I expect an answer, what was that all about?"

"It's nothing," Tony mumbled.

"This is about Afghanistan isn't it?" Fury snapped. When Tony didn't say anything Fury pushed on, "This is a liability Stark! If our enemy's found out you're afraid of water they'll use it against us to get information! Is that what you want?"

"Fury it's not the big a deal…" Clint defended.

"This is huge Barton," Fury snapped, "This needs to be fixed, Stark I want you to report to me tomorrow, this _will_ to get fixed." With that Fury swept out of the room, leaving no room for argument.

"Tony…" Bruce began as Tony scrambled to his feet.

"I'm fine," Tony said before anyone could say anything, "it's nothing." Still covering the arc reactor Tony ran back into the tower, not once looking back at his worried team.

* * *

Steve had hoped to talk to Tony to at least apologize for throwing Tony in the pool, but quickly discovered that Tony had actually gone down to the SHIELD base like Fury had asked.

"I bet Tony's hoping that SHIELD can help him," Bruce said, shrugging slightly, but Steve could see the worry in his eyes.

"Do you know why he's so afraid?" Steve asked quietly, "there was nothing on his file…"

"Didn't you hear about Tony getting captured in Afghanistan?" Natasha asked.

"No…" Steve began.

"Right sorry, you were spending time as a capcical still," Clint said making Steve scowl.

"They wanted him to make weapons," Natasha said catching Steve's attention, "they didn't like it when Tony said no. So… they used a form of water boarding to try and convince him. Instead of building missiles he built himself the first iron man suit and broke out."

"Wow…" Steve muttered, impressed.

"SHIELD knows what they're doing, they can help Tony," Natasha assured, but Steve could see the worry in her eyes.

"Do you really think that?" Steve asked.

"I trust Director Fury," Natasha said firmly.

* * *

The team grew more and more worried as the days went by and Tony started acting even stranger. He kept getting jumpier after every SHIELD visit and refused to talk about what went on, but it seemed with every lesson, his fear only grew. It seemed like sometimes a glass of water could set Tony off. Even Natasha started to have her doubts.

"I can't just watch Tony do this to himself!" Bruce snapped after Tony had left for the SHIELD base.

"Getting over a phobia isn't easy…" Natasha defended weakly.

"Whatever SHIELD is doing is making it worse!" Bruce snapped.

"Bruce is right," Steve agreed, "Something about this is wrong."

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to find out what's really going on," Clint declared walking out of the room, "you are welcome to join me." Steve looked over at Bruce and they both nodded their heads before running after Clint, followed reluctantly by Natasha.

Tony knew that the team was starting to wonder what was going on, but this was for the best, he would not allow someone else to die because he was weak. All Tony could think about was Yinsens last words to him _'don't waste your life'_. He would make it up to Yinsen; he would get through his fears.

Tony took a deep breath before walking into the Anti-Interrogation training room. He hated the SHIELD agents assigned to help him get over his fears, but Fury assured him they were the best, and Tony was willing to do anything to fix his problem so he kept his mouth shut. At first, Tony wasn't sure these guys knew what they were doing, but Fury assured him they'd dealt with many agents and helped them all get over their fears. Tony didn't want his team to see him as weak, and he certainly didn't want to think he couldn't take it so he just decided to go with what Fury said, despite his gut telling him he really shouldn't trust the guy.

"Ready for your lesson?" Carson, the man in charge of helping Tony asked. Tony wasn't given time to answer, two SHIELD agents that Tony didn't recognize appeared and grabbed Tony, dragging him to a large tub filled with water.

Tony was roughly grabbed, his head forced once again under the water. Terror gripped Tony as he thrashed in the water trying to get his head out of the water, but the SHIELD agents had a firm grip and where determined to fix Tony's problem. Tony screamed, causing him to swallow a large mouthful of water. Suddenly Tony was yanked out of the water and was gently set down on the ground, Tony painfully vomiting the water he'd swallowed. Hands tightly gripped his shoulders and another rubbed soothing circles on his back. Tony leaned against the side of the tub and weakly looked up and saw Clint screaming at the SHIELD agents, Bruce was kneeling in front of Tony, looking dangerously close to Hulking out, and Steve was patting his shoulder, glaring at the SHIELD agents.

"You ok?" Bruce asked through clenched teeth.

"Yea," Tony replied hoarsely. Seeing how mad Bruce was, Tony assured him, "they were just trying to help…" Tony's words only seemed to enrage Bruce even more though. Bruce stood up and stalked over to the cowering agents and growled,

"I don't know what you assholes where thinking, but this is not the answer. The Hulk was dangerously close to coming out to play, the only reason he hasn't is because Tony seems to think you were trying to help. So let me help you by warning you, if I _ever_ see you anywhere near Tony again the Hulk will tear you to shreds. Do I make myself clear?" Clint roughly grabbed the agent and shoved him against the wall snarling,

"He asked you a question!" The agent frantically nodded his head and Clint flung him to the ground, "now get out." The agent scrambled out of the room, terrified. Natasha sat down heavily next to Tony and whispered,

"I'm sorry…"

"Wha-?"

"I trusted Fury too much. I should have known…" Natasha continued. Before Tony could ask more Steve was pulling Tony to his feet and leading him out of the room.

* * *

Clint looked over at Tony who sat by the edge of the pool refusing to even put his feet in, staring at the water like it was going to rise up and swallow him whole. It had been several days since they'd rescued Tony from the SHIELDS agents. At first Tony insisted that he was ok and that they didn't need to threaten SHIELD like that, but after a long conversation with Steve, Tony finally agreed to not go back to SHIELD for help. Tony thankfully didn't seem to affected by the whole thing, other than being more afraid of water than ever. Sighing Clint swam over to the edge of the pool and pulled himself out sitting down next to Tony.

"We don't think any less of you for being afraid," Clint calmly told Tony, making Tony jump.

"Fury's right though," Tony snapped, "I'm a liability!"

"Maybe we can help you fix that," Bruce offered swimming over to the edge.

"Yea, SHIELD tried to, didn't work so well," Tony replied stiffly.

"Yea well SHIELD didn't do their job right," Bruce snapped, his eyes taking on a slight green ting.

"They were just trying to help," Tony protested weakly.

"Yea because drowning someone always helps with their fear of water," Clint snapped, eyes blazing. Tony hung his head looking ashamed and Clint sighed and continued, "Look Tony we don't think any less of you for this ok?" When Tony didn't answer Clint continued, "We can help you though. Do you trust us?"

"Yea…" Tony said slowly as Clint slid back into the pool.

"Then get in," Clint said waving gesturing at him. When he saw Tony hesitate he added, "We won't let you drown."

"I know that," Tony said, trying to sound annoyed, but even he could tell it sounded more scared than annoyed.

"Then get in." Reluctantly Tony uncrossed his legs and let them fall into the water. Tony then took a calming breath before he slipped into the cold water, holding onto the edge of the pool with an iron grip.

"Let go of the wall," Bruce prompted, smiling encouragingly at Tony. Slowly Tony released his death grip on the wall and swam out. He was Tony Stark, he could do this.

* * *

**End Notes**

** Hopefully I didn't offend anyone or anything. Let me know what you thought! I couldn't seem to come up with a good ending so use your imagination as to what you think happens next. **


End file.
